25 Jan, 2016 – People enrolled in debt settlement programs obtain settlements faster and are more likely to achieve debt reduction than before new federal regulations took effect in 2010, according to a study.

In October of that year, as the economy struggled to climb out of the Great Recession, the Federal Trade Commission responded to abusive practices, both real and perceived, by some debt relief companies by implementing a new rule: Companies could no longer charge customers up-front fees in exchange for negotiating with clients’ creditors to settle debts for less than the total amounts owed.

Under the FTC’s new Telemarketing Sales Rule, companies could only charge fees after they had reached a settlement and the customer agreed to it.

Because the risk of debt settlement has shifted from the consumer to the service provider, since it can’t collect a fee unless it achieves a settlement, consumers are seeing faster results.

Since the new regulation, more than 50 percent of debt settlement clients have experienced at least one settlement within four months of enrollment, compared to just 12 percent obtaining a settlement in that timeframe before the new rule, according to “Options for Consumers in Crisis: An Updated Economic Analysis of the Debt Settlement Industry,” a study released by the American Fair Credit Council, the nonprofit debt relief industry trade group.

The average client is in their debt settlement programs for 13.5 months, compared to 22.1 months before the regulations.

The study reviewed the outcomes of 1.9 million accounts that settlement firms handled on behalf of about 297,000 clients from January 2006 through March 2015.

Vantage Acceptance is proud of its record and has earned an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau. We’ll work hard to negotiate with your unsecured debt creditors, saving you from having to file bankruptcy, which is worse for your credit record than debt settlement, and creditors have an incentive to negotiate because they know they’ll receive nothing if you go the bankruptcy route.